MANILA – Kiefer Ravena stepped up offensively in the fourth quarter as Strong Group Athletics-Pilipinas prevailed over Ukraine, 82-74, in the 43rd William Jones Cup on Monday night at the Xinzhuang Stadium in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Scoreless in the first three quarters, the Iloilo City-native guard poured all of his 10 points in the final quarter as part of SGA-Pilipinas’ 20-6 finishing run to maintain an unblemished 3-0 record.
Chris McCullough top-scored with 28 points, with 13 coming in the fourth quarter, to go with six rebounds, two assists, and a block, while Jordan Heading converted four three-point conversions to end up with 24 markers for SGA-Pilipinas.
Down 62-68 at the onset of the fourth quarter, the SGA-Pilipinas dropped a 20-6 scoring run behind the tandem of McCullough and Ravena to complete a come-from-behind victory.
“This is a big game for us, and we really considered this encounter against Ukraine as a must-win for us,” SGA-Pilipinas head coach Charles Tiu said in a social media post on Monday.
“We saw Ukraine’s game against Chinese Taipei (on Sunday night) and they really struggled, but we know that they are a much stronger team than how they played so we really prepared for them,” he added.
Anatoliy Shundel led Ukraine with 17 points; Rostyslav Novitakyi and Oleksandr Antypov had 12 and 11, respectively; and Pavlo Krutous and Oleksandr Kobzystyi had 10 each. They dropped to 0-2.
SGA-Pilipinas kicked off their campaign in the week-long tournament with a 104-79 victory over United Arab Emirates on Saturday, followed by a 91-69 triumph over Australia’s BSBL Guardians.
After taking a break on Tuesday, SGA-Pilipinas returns on Wednesday against Malaysia Hariman Men, followed by matches against Future Sports (Thursday), Japan (Friday), Chinese Taipei B (Saturday) and Chinese Taipei A (Sunday)./PN
